Po-Pro-Peep Relationships

(That’s Police-Protester-People, if you were wondering.)

Friday: If you’ve been out and about on the quiet, but not deserted, streets of Toronto you’ll have seen little teams of police out and about, looking like the cast of Flashpoint waiting to shoot a scene.

There’s a lot of talk about the localized special powers given to police during the G20, the sound cannons, various detentions and arrests. There’s been a lot of big statements bandied about like Police State and Nazi Ghetto. Here’s a record and some information about some of these things.

Sound Cannon

The sound cannon, officially called the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), is a controversial technology capable of emitting very loud, high pitched sounds as well as transmitting pre-recorded and real-time voice messages. This was used in Pittsburgh to control protesters and caused some trouble because if used for longer than a few seconds, the sound can damage eardrums. Civil Liberties groups attempted to get an injunction against the use of the sound cannons here in Toronto. The Judge ruled on Friday morning that sound cannons can be used but under limited rules. The Toronto Police say they will mostly use them for communication and will only BEEEEP at people for 2-3 seconds.

This tweet, spotted Friday around 12:30pm, is the epitome of one view of the security in downtown Toronto. It is true that the Public Works Protection Act does give the police increased powers within five metres of the fence (and within it). It is true that there are fences. However, beyond that fence Torontonians’ rights remain very similar to what they were last weekend. Aside from a small patch of downtown, we are free to move relatively unmolested (Update: with some exceptions: see below).

Keep this in mind.

Illegal Searches

On Friday, at Allan Gardens while protesters gathered, reports were that police were searching journalists and protesters alike– if people refused they were turned away. A lot of tweeters were calling these searches illegal, but are they?

The answer lies in the basis of Canadian law. Canada has a common law system, whereby law is developed by the decisions of judges and guided by reference to precedent. The upshot of this is that legality/illegality is more of a grey area than it is in a country like, say, the US.

8. Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.

However, this is undercut by the word “unreasonable”. Nowhere in written Canadian law does it state what is “unreasonable”. In addition, we have Section 1, which goes like this:

1. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

These “reasonable limits” are decided upon by a judge. That is to say that until you go to court and a judge bangs the gavel and tells you that the search you were subjected to was unreasonable and unjustified, only then will we (and, even, the police) know whether these searches were legal or illegal.

Police Brutality

On Saturday night, protesters surrounded by police on The Esplanade included a Guardian reporter named Jesse Rosenfeld who was arrested by police and, according to Steve Paikin (from TVO’s The Agenda), unnecessarily beaten in the process. Torontoist link. Tempers are running high.

The legal and political fallout from this weekend is going to last for weeks.

London and Pittsburgh

Toronto’s not used to being heavily policed. We’re a safe city, as cities of this size go, probably one of the safest. The G20 is arguably one of the most heavily policed events– and one of the most potentially explosive (perhaps literally)– in the civilized, western world. I just wanted to put some links in to remind people of the Pittsburgh and London experiences.

These are Saturday and Sunday experiences, so (on Friday) we’re not there yet. But should be interesting.

I’m seeing a lot of comments from people about how friendly the police are. I saw two police on horseback waving to a little girl. Nobody can accuse the ISU of being gruff for no reason. At the same time, we’re also getting isolated reports of snarky comments from police towards both protesters and bystanders.

Police Professionalism

After what happened on Saturday, there was an outpouring of both support and condemnation for the actions of the police. Protesters felt they had been treated very badly. Rabble.ca:

Police playing politics, justifying the expense and responding to the critiques building all week about excessive and arbitrary police powers. A politicized police force is unacceptable in a democratic society.

However, many Torontonians and many journalists felt that the police response was effective. Here’s one article by National Post’s Jonathan Kay on his witnessing the ISU in action.

But then came the sirens, and the atmosphere changed very quickly. From down Queen Street, headed eastbound, a speeding convoy of unmarked white busses stopped outside the Silver Snail comic store, and out poured police in full riot gear — helmets, batons, body armor.

One point is he makes is that even rabble.ca which, true to its name, is firmly on the side of the activist, has only managed to find a photo of a scrape.

In the middle is the discussion about tactics, unnecessary force, unnecessary arrests of relatively innocent people, where-were-the-police-when questions and other such things. No doubt some of these questions will never be answered and some will come out over the next couple of weeks. Let us be happy, though, that– as of 5:25 on Sunday– there have been no injuries requiring hospitalization on either side.

Detention Centre

The Detention Centre at 629 Eastern Ave. (Eastern/Pape) is where the 560 people arrested so far have been taken. They are held here until they are charged or released.